Are Dividend Stocks Dead?

NEW YORK ( TheStreet) -- Eat this, not that. Fat, thin . Hot, not. Good, evil . You're either with us or against us. Liberal, conservative . Subsidize, take it private.

Dichotomy has swallowed our collective brain.

With black-and-white coloring the national discourse on just about everything, it's no surprise that we have had a gaggle of market geeks calling the end of the dividend stock rally for much of the year.

Truth be told, I don't pay much attention these types of rallies. Most long-term investors shouldn't either.

While I don't necessarily advocate buy-and-hold (because, by and large, it is dead), it's even more insane to chase what's hot. You'll be in dividend stocks one day, real estate plays the next and utilities when the market turns bear. Unless you have loads of information, tons of time and considerable resources, it's not easy to win with such a fluid strategy.

No matter the market, it comes down to stock picking.

Ask folks who, five years ago when it didn't appear quite as crazy, threw money at Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) , Dell (DELL) and Cisco Systems (CSCO) how things turned out. All three stocks have shed heavy double-digits, whereas an investment in the Nasdaq 100 index via the Powershares QQQ ETF (QQQ) would have returned greater than 20%.

Bull market, bear market. Dividends hot or not. You have to pick the right stocks.

The same author pointed to MSFT's price-to-earnings ratio. When he wrote the article, it was 15.3 (trailing 12 months). As of Friday's close, it's down to 14.3.

An even better value, right?

Wrong.

Investors likely exist who run scans for declining P/E and rising dividend yields. From there, they make the case, like the guy at Mutley Fool did, that they have a value stock on their hands. One that's set to "possibly see their shares rise over the next year by over 25%."

That's what the dude wrote.

Maybe it will happen. I bet against it, but I can't say for certain.

What I can tell you -- flat out -- is that the method of seeking value Mutley relayed will set you on the trail of losers like HPQ, DELL, CSCO and, dare I say, Research in Motion (RIMM) .

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